This invention relates to centrifugal pump and more specifically to the fabrication of a double suction casing for pumps. In the manufacturing of pumps of the type herein being considered, the normal procedure is to manufacture the various components as castings which involve the providing of patterns that are costly to manufacture and which have been found to wear so as to impair the efficiency of the pump itself. In the pump art, it is not unreasonable to find that repairs to pumps manufactured thirty or more years ago is often requested. However, often times the patterns for these pumps from which the various castings are made are no longer available, and, thus, the demands of the customers cannot be met resulting in scrapping of a particular type of pump, especially a pump that is specifically designed for a specific job application. Thus, customers are required to purchase entirely new pumps of present design which may or may not fit the piping arrangement which exists for the pumps that were applied thereto for 30 years. As a result, the customer must revamp the piping lines materially adding the cost of securing a new pump. It is also noted that in the past the pumps which were cast were restricted application, in that some materials such as stainless steel could not be supplied to a customer in the cast pump format. This means that the pump of normal cast iron would be utilized but it would not function or operate for a time interval satisfactory to most installation conditions where stainless steel was needed.
It is also know that the suction passage of a double-suction casing is a critical design area. The water must turn several times to reach the impeller inlet and cavitation, noise, separation and vibration can result if the suction area is not sufficiently large enough.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a fabrication technique for double-suction casings of a centrifugal pump.
Another object of the invention is to provide a fabricated volute section for a split case centrifugal pump.
Still another object of the present invention is to fabricate the volute section of a centrifugal pump from a plurality of fabricated volute sections from a plurality of computer designed volute sections which provide an optimum pump case with smooth transitional joints.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a fabricated pump casing with the discharge and suction passage on the same side of the casing.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a fabricated centrifugal pump in which casing is provided with a parting line and utilizes standard rotating elements.